Fallbrook's part in general plan update to be discussed

TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer Monday planning group on tap

FALLBROOK -- A county land-use planner will talk about how
Fallbrook may be affected as the county prepares to update its
blueprint for future growth during a Fallbrook Planning Group
meeting on Monday night.

The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at Live Oak School, 1978 Reche
Road.

Devon Muto, the project manager in charge of updating the
county's general plan, said Friday that delays caused by personnel
turnover in the Department of Planning and Land Use have created
the perception that the update had been put on hold.

"We're still working on it, and we're dedicated to getting it
finished," Muto said Friday. "A lot of work has gone into this
project. We're not getting rid of that, we're just taking it to
completion."

The general plan is a set of planning guidelines for rural San
Diego County areas that are unincorporated.

It was originally drawn up in the 1970s, and the county has been
working for 10 years to update the document with enough rezoned
property to fit an additional 210,000 to 220,000 people in
unincorporated communities.

During the process, planners have drawn fire from officials in
Fallbrook and Bonsall, who have said the county was not trying hard
enough to incorporate guidelines for preserving the rural character
of their areas.

Muto disagreed, saying the county is trying to draft the general
plan update with the idea of "keeping our towns and their character
intact."

For example, he said, the county will establish "village limit
lines" around certain parts of downtown Fallbrook, within which
housing densities could range from two to 30 homes per acre. But
outside of the lines, he said, property could still be kept rural
by preserving larger acreage-per-house ratios.

He said the planning group's input on those boundaries will
allow local leaders to ensure that the proper land-use rules are in
place to govern future development.

Also among the topics that Muto will address is the possible
addition of western De Luz into the Fallbrook planning area, an
idea the planning group discussed last year. The move would allow
Fallbrook planners to make recommendations to the Board of
Supervisors on land use and traffic in western De Luz.

He said that when county planners revise the general plan, they
would be able to make broad changes such as adding De Luz to the
Fallbrook Planning Group's jurisdiction.

"If they identify an area that they want to include in their
planning area, the department is definitely open to that," said
Muto. "I don't think we're looking at any other boundary changes
(in Fallbrook), but there are other areas in the county where we're
looking at doing that."

He said he will also talk about the heavily contested piece of
land at the northeast corner of Interstate 15 and Highway 76, where
developers want to build thousands of homes, a Palomar College
extension campus and retail and commercial centers.

That subject drew what was possibly the largest crowd to ever
attend a planning group meeting, when in March 2005, hundreds of
residents packed the school to protest the plans.